


Fine China

by Shockcakes



Category: Furry (Fandom), Original Work
Genre: Gen, Humor, Red Panda, Small kung fu scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:32:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22672588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shockcakes/pseuds/Shockcakes
Summary: A red panda and a tiger walk into a restaurant
Kudos: 1





	Fine China

"No."

Zhen's optimistic smile melted into a frown. "No?" She repeated, her stomach saddened by the recent turn of events. 

During her travels, Zhen came face to face (metaphorically speaking) with many foes and unforeseen obstacles. One way or another, she had been able to see them through, whether through her impeccable skill or whatever deity of luck chose to favor her. Yet, one challenge consistently returned time after time, becoming more staunch with Zhen's recent appearances.

"Yes. No."

Tsun-Zao's appearance was misleading. She dressed as the typical waitress one would expect from a quaint restaurant lingering on the outskirts of her village. Customers and travelers alike would be greeted to a dainty young woman, clad in her jade ornamental dress complimented by a welcoming smile as she led them inside. 

Or at least, Zhen assumed so. She'd only experienced it once.

"No...yes?" The red panda blinked as Tsun-Zao's impatient glare shadowed over her like the judgmental Buddhist statues at her temple.

" _No_." The waitress repeated. standing firmly between the monk and the door to her restaurant. "I've told you time and time again _not_ to come back and yet you keep. Coming. Back."

"But Zao-"

"And I keep telling you not to call me Zao."

"Even if I tell you that you make the best udon in China?" She punctuated with a hopeful grin. It wasn't returned.

"No." Tsun-Zao deadpanned. "Every time I let you in here, you either break something, start a fight, or both. In fact, it's _mostly_ both!" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't understand how a _monk_ of all things could cause so much chaos."

In dejection, Zhen's ears and tail lowered. Just through the door, her acute senses noted the delectable smell of noodles - cooked exactly how she loved with an assortment of her favorite toppings. Her stomach growled in desperation but the human wall in her path made sustenance impossible.

With a customary bow, Zhen sighed dejectedly as she turned to walk away, her fantasy lunch for the day dashed right in front of her. With each step, her hunger pangs made her body feel heavier and heavier. Muscles toned from countless years of training now rendered themselves useless. Her pace slowed to an agonizing crawl before halting all at once, her face laying defeated amidst the dirt.

"Zhen," Tsun Zao brought a hand to her face in frustration, "what are you doing?"

The red panda said nothing. By contrast, her stomach already done a full rant.

"You realize there are other restaurants right?"

Her stomach growled even harder in response. Tsun-Zao could only wonder what other outlandish skills she picked up from her monastery.

To her knowledge, monks didn't beg, but Zhen was seemingly most adept at it.

"Zhen-" 

Every response the waitress attempted was met with an agitated stomach retort. She hated the sound; not because it was annoying - which it indeed was - but because it meant a mouth not being fed. A poor soul starved. She realized she may have been a more nurturing soul than she realized.

_I'm going to regret every second of this decision._

Tsun-Zao sighed. "Do you at least have money?"

Without a missed beat, Zhen lifted an arm overhead with a decently hefty coin purse in hand, somehow still locked pathetically face down.

"At least get off the ground. A passing breeze might rid you of what little decency you have-"

Tsun-Zao eventually realized Zhen was no longer performing an impromptu downward dog position but was rather standing before her, eagerly awaiting to be invited inside.

"...left."

The beastkin smiled as though she hadn't just been dying of starvation not five seconds ago. She made a step to stroll inside however no progress was made due to the intervention of the waitress's stern finger against Zhen's forehead.

" _Ah_ ," Tsun-Zao chirped urgently before she gave a dour frown, "before you even set foot into my restaurant, listen well. If you break even a _single_ plate within my presence, I assure you there will be no candle, no meditation, _no acupuncture_ that will fix what I do to you. Am I clear?"

A solid minute of silence befell them both. Not even that peaceful chirping of the wildlife surrounding them could quell the malicious aura Tsun-Zao held. The expression on her face wildly contested everything else on her person. 

Perhaps it was Zhen's training - her inherent control over her emotions - which allowed her to continue fondly regarding the waitress as if she were a childhood friend. 

Or maybe it was the chirping mother bird carrying food for her lively newborns that distracted Zhen from the whole rant.

"Hm? Did you say someth-"

" _JUST DON'T BREAK ANYTHING!!_ "

\--

Zhen bowed to the chef; one of the kind young men under Tsun-Zao's employ whom she'd seen numerous times. Her tail swished happily while she momentarily gave Tsun-Zao a thankful smile. She merely rolled her eyes.

No matter how hungry she was, Zhen always savored the first smell of a freshly cooked meal. One of the carry-overs from her teachings - to enjoy the fleeting moments in life for they were scarce and were over before she knew. Whether it was the tantalizing scent of noodles cooked in a rich broth or the first rays of the sun after a...long night.

"Must you make that face every time you eat?"

"What face?" She answered, ignorant of the line of drool trailing down the side of her mouth.

"...Never mind."

Tsun-Zao deemed herself lucky the day had been slow for the most part. Ironically, Zhen was simultaneously her best and worst customer. She would gladly buy as many bowls of noodles they could offer. Any meals with peaches would be sold out and Tsun-Zao had never seen a greater love for meat buns. She would have deemed it a mystery as to where such a short red panda was keeping all of that food but the volume of her hips provided most of the answer. She attracted more attention than the restaurant needed.

The customer bell chimed just behind her. Somewhat satisfied by nothing being broken as of yet, Tsun-Zao allowed herself to briefly take her eye off of the supposed disaster magnet.

Zhen noisily slurped her noodles.

Apprehensiveness momentarily disappeared from her face, replaced only by the warming countenance that Zhen once thought to be a fantasy. 

Tsun-Zao bowed with grace, greeting the customer in her native Mandarin tongue. "Welcome! How may I help you today?"

There was something impressive about the way she was able to casually greet a man several sizes bigger than her. His worn, grimy clothes would have at least been somewhat offputting to most. One could only imagine the amount of colorful looking characters she had seen that a man that encompassed most of her doorway didn't make her bat an eye.

Even when he was revealed to be a beastkin tiger.

He ignored her, quietly lumbering past Tsun-Zao and to a seat not far from his racial kin.

Zhen continued to noisily slurp her noodles.

Tsun-Zao resisted the urge to sneer. For every polite and patient customer, there were always the difficult ones. It wasn't anything new. In her mind, the most common fix had been to bite her tongue and power through it for the time being. 

The tiger growled something in the same Mandarin tongue, calling her over with nothing but impatience behind his tone.

Tsun-Zao hid her agitation well as she approached him. “What can I get you for today?” The welcoming in her voice wavered but was still present.

Again, Zhen involuntarily made her presence known throughout the quiet shack.

“Meat.” The tiger’s growled, his feline ears twitching. “Boiled.”

“Right away.”

The waitress retreated out of sight into the inner kitchen. Skittishly, the chef soon followed her when a cautionary glance earned a glare from the beastkin. He might as well have been told he’d be next on the menu.

A moment of brief silence passed.

Before once again being broken by the only other suspect.

Zhen’s attention didn’t leave her meal when the tiger’s harsh stare focused on her. Her chopsticks stuffed another set of noodles to her face.

She paused only when a strange shadow had blanketed over her. A quick glance to her side revealed that she had a visitor.

“ _You_.” Aggravation dipped the imposing man’s tone.

Zhen cluelessly chewed on her food. “Me?”

She swallowed, letting the quiet befall them once again. Her expression was unreadable, caught trying to piece together what the snarling tiger in front of her was referring to. By deduction, Zhen knew she wasn’t eating someone else’s food by accident again. Tsun-Zao would’ve informed her. Angrily.

With nothing else coming to mind, the monk once more went for another bite of noodles.

The bowl was knocked out of her hands.

In a split second, an unexpected fist had backhanded the half-eaten food skyward.

Zhen’s focus was clearly where it needed to be. A fraction of a second passed by as her foot pistoned herself at the still falling porcelain, precious broth threatening to ruin Tsun-Zao’s freshly cleaned floors. Her palm captured the bowl, leaning it appropriately to catch its contents before the said waitress could make do on her promise.

“Ah.” She said plainly. Zhen's expression remained unchanged, showing not even the slightest annoyance at almost losing her meal privileges indefinitely. In an outstretched palm, her chopsticks fell from the air, soon returning to their duties within seconds.

"You accidentally knocked Tsun-Zao's expensive bowl." 

Zhen noisily slurped her noodles, ignorant to the way they made the tiger's ears fidget. His feline eyes contracted as they focused on the object of his hatred. "That blasted noise!" He snarled.

Her head cocked with curiosity between mouthfuls. "Noise? I don't hear anything."

She went for another chopstick-full but her reflexes responded first. A swipe had barely managed to smack the offending bowl from her hand before it was quickly jerked from its path. No broth spilled.

A brief moment of disbelief passed before the tiger snarled once more. He clawed and scratched at air, the Zhen's expert movements beating him out each time. She moved the bowl seamlessly as though it weighed nothing, tossing it in midair and catching it just as well.

A claw soon aimed for her face instead only resulting in his wrist being keenly intercepted by a pair of chopsticks.

The two beastkin paused as Zhen held him firm within her grasp. He growled and his teeth were bared to her yet she was collected, even as the bowl had landed perfectly balanced on her tail.

"You know," she began casually, "Zao might be taking long, but that doesn't mean you can take the food I ordered."

His face strained as she kept his arm twisted at a painful angle. Any attempt he made at yanking himself free had failed, the two flimsy pieces of wood clamping his hand solid in a vice grip.

The tiger failed to hide his pained grunt as his wrist grew sore. In seconds the short little red panda's poker face made her look far more threatening than she actually was. Or at least what he assumed as much. Just who was she??

"Argh! Alright! Alright, I yield!"

Her hold released, granting his wrist freedom before he could assume it was about to break. A few steps backward were taken as a precaution. He never would have thought he'd be looking at a pair of meager twigs being used with such efficiency.

As he saw her reach for her bowl, a vile premonition coursed through his mind.

Zhen noisily slurped her noodles.

\--

The kitchen door opened.

Tsun-Zao may have been smiling but its emptiness was apparent. In fact, it all but bordered onto malice. "One plate of boiled meat coming u-"

She came to a halt, finding her restaurant suddenly down one belligerent feline. Naturally, she drew the obvious conclusion regarding her remaining patron.

"What did you break?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Mhm."

"Really?"

"Yes."

The waitress blinked, visibly unconvinced but found no further proof of the opposite. The almost finished bowl in her hands proved suitable evidence as it wasn't an "accidental" casualty of the monk not paying attention to her surroundings. None of the furniture showed signs of a brawl taking place and the floors looked as spick and span as she left it.

"Where did the _other_ one go?"

Zhen noisily slurped her noodles, the last of its delicious contents slipping into her mouth.

"He was just here a second ago. Must have lost his appetite. Speaking of which," her attention instantly turned to the untouched meal in Tsun-Zao's hands, its lingering scent all but forcing Zhen to forget she just ate. "That plate actually looks good."

There was a remnant of disappointment on her face as she looked at the meal that had been carefully and painstakingly prepared by a professional's hands.

"I spat on it."

"...You really shouldn't do tha-"

"I know."

"Then why did y-"

" _He deserved_ _it._ " She muttered, tossing away the ruined meat with regret from its unfulfilled goal. "I suppose since you didn't destroy anything - that I know of - I won't kick you out. This time."

For the first time after their initial meeting, Zhen saw her crack a genuine smile. Closer to a tiny smirk rather, but genuine all the same.

"This is the part where you pay me."

"Ah, of course!" She gingerly handed Tsun-Zao her bowl as Zhen reached for her coin purse. 

"Now if you could at least be this careful when there are actual _people_ around then maybe I won't have to...won't hav- _ahhchew!_ "

The smallest, most minuscule of sneezes had caused Tsun-Zao to jerk her hand. For an infinitesimal second, her grip on the bowl wavered. In her panic, the waitress attempted to strengthen her grip but only resulted in forcing the porcelain to clumsily slip out of her hand. Helplessly, she watched the scene play out in horror.

Zhen's normally squinted eyes widened as she watched the melancholy puddle of pieces that once housed her lunch.

"I didn't do that."


End file.
